Call for an Inquiry into NPD Funding

20 December 2016

David has given his support to this motion in the Scottish Parliament

Call for an Inquiry into NPD Funding

That the Parliament welcomes the work by The Guardian newspaper and The Ferret online investigative journalism site, and the news that Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission are to investigate the Scottish Government’s non-profit distribution (NPD) model of financing public infrastructure projects; understands that an error made by the Scottish Government in interpreting EU rules has resulted in £932 million of expenditure that will now have to found from its own borrowing; considers that NPD projects are very poor value for money with, for example, the new Dumfries Hospital earning investors £100 million in interest on borrowing of £218 million, with loan rates of up to 11.3% being charged by private lenders as opposed to a public works loan board rate of 1.6%; understands that, under some of these contracts, public sector staff are seeing their jobs taken out of, for example, the NHS and transferred to the private sector with no TUPE protection, and that maintenance services at sites such as the new Royal Edinburgh Hospital will see charges levied by private contractors, which are triple the rate currently paid; believes that these projects are bad for taxpayers and bad for workers, and encourages the Parliament, through its committees, to hold an inquiry into the NPD model of financing public services.